But as a person currently on cholesterol medication (at 26, fuck me right?), I've often been told that stress increases the effects of high cholesterol. Lowering your stress doesn't necessarily lower your HDL's, but you get what he meant.

WolvinLA- My uncle, who's a physician, thinks they should put Lipitor in the water, like they do with fluoride. Thus, I am slated to see my doctor to get on Lipitor next week, and I just turned 29. Even though my cholesterol is in the slightly high range of normal, he told me if I want to live a long time, I should get on it now. So don't sweat it.

LDL is used by your body as a quick fix, whenever your arteries get a little knick. The body slathers it on to seal the knick, life goes on. HDL gets filled in very carefully, like a precision crack seal, instead of just paving it over. When your blood pressure goes up, you get more knicks in your arteries, so your body starts slathering on the LDL as fast as it can. Arterialsclerosis. Low stress won't reduce your cholesterol, but it will reduce the effects of it.

What's the average time-frame for an RB coming off of reconstructive knee surgery? My impression from watching NFL QBs is that the first year back is 90%ish, but maybe given positional differences and league differences there's a chance Vince will be full strength. Is there enough info compiled to make a reasonable guess?

A RB relies way more on his ACL than a QB. I don't know how you took that to conclude that even though most QB's are only 90% in the first year after coming back from an ACl tear but V.Smith should probably be okay.

Considering that almost every person on this planet "relies" on their ACL for positive response and structural integrity of your knee, I dont know how you could conclude that a RB relies more on his ACL than a QB.
Especially considering the Qs we currently have on the roster.

I have had a few friends who play D1 level collegiate sports suffer this injury..
The question that remains if it was a 100% tear or a "lottery" tear (<50%), that will make a big impact on recovery time.
Of the three friends I had tear up their knees (one lax player, one basketball, one hockey)
2 had lottery tears, and one had a full tear.
The lottery tears felt comfortable running and jumping at full speed in approximately 8-10 months.
The full tear (who was also a basketball player) said he didnt feel full speed and confident in the joint until about 15 months later, after lots of conditioning.

I believe that ACL injuries take more than a year to fully recover from. Looking back in history from players who've suffered this kind of injury and just as you've said, Duane Bennett looked tentative and slow. From what I can see, it takes around 9-12 months for a complete physical recovery but longer than that due to the player being comfortable enough and confident enough in the knee to make the quick cuts required of a RB, WR, etc. QBs I'm sure can play quicker than that due to less of a need for quick cuts, etc, and I've even heard of hockey players coming back quickly from this as well. Never played ice hockey before so not sure just how much stress is placed on the knee when making the cuts there. I agree with you that it would be in Vincent's best interest to probably sit out the year rather than suffer through a year when your knee isnt probably going to be 100% and your confidence in your knee isnt where it should be.

The psychological hurdles are real, but from a physical standpoint, Smith should be essentially 100% by September, unless it was a really bad tear. ACLs are relatively easy to surgically repair, and other than infection, complications are uncommon. The main physical issue is just building up strength in the knee after the surgery.

1. Players gets news ACL is torn, gloom and doom moves in.
2. 3-6 months- the 1st news story comes out and the player says he is 3 months ahead of schedule and feels great.
3. 8-12 months- player is usually back at camp with story he is 100% ready to go
4. 13-17 months- Player has suffered thru mediocre to bad season and he reveals knee wasn't quite right.
5. 20-24 months- After full offseason of rehab and training player reveals he is now better than ever and that these things usually take 2 years and that while he felt good last year he didn't have the explosion, but now he's back. That usually leads to renewed success on the football field.

V. Smith-hopeful for the kids sake, not too worried for team
D. Molk-Please be the 1 in 10 freak that makes it back in a year at 80-95%

The Smith and Molk injuries really have me worried. Before Molk got hurt the O-Line was actually pretty good and VSmith was our best option at RB. Im afraid someone is going to have to step up at both positions next year. At least for the non-conference portion of the schedule.

There should be enough depth and experience after spring practice at C (Khoury, Barnum) and RB (Toussaint, Shaw, Cox, White, Hopkins, Swanson) to be able to better withstand these losses, as opposed to last year.

At the least, someone like Khoury or Barnum can get on the field and play the non-conference schedule in order to give Molk an extra month to rehabilitate, if it's needed.

What is this logic you bring?? Molk or bust. Molk has moved up to my favorite player and I think you can cheat at center a little more than you can at rb to cover up for not being 100%. I think Molk plays the Uconn game, I just don't know how effective...All Big Ten like I think is his potential or 70% of that which is D. Moosman from last year which = struggling oline

That's prety funny, but jokes aside I feel better about things with Barwis. He's big into the joint stabilization exercises and football movement type stuff so while not miraculous like the Dead Sea he may be worth a couple of % points over the more traditional weight lifting based program.

Hopefully, during spring practice, the other guys can step up and add some serious depth at the RB position. I like Fitzgerald Toussaint more, but having Vincent Smith back 100% adds another dimension to the offense.

I just saw him about half an hour ago and he looked REALLY comfortable walking on it. Ive had some of my friends have surgery and at this point in time weren't comfortable walking like he was on it today. I think his tear wasn't that severe but he could just be healing up nicely. He didn't even look like he was limping at all on it.

the doctors that work with us are some of the best. Ive had to see them a couple of times and they've worked wonders, but no surgeries though. The two that worked with me and were awesome were Hendrickson and Sekiya, I'd be willing to bet that Sekiya did his surgery, from everything that my friends and trainers told me hes really good for those ACL surgeries.

It definitely depends on the severity of the tear. However, that is not always the determining factor. Sometimes, it's body type, tolerance to pain, and HOW WELL OF A JOB THE DOCTOR DID?!

With this being said, my room mate in college tore his ACL (FULL TEAR) against Ohio State like the 4th or 5th game of the season. He had surgery that week. He was competing during winter conditioning with NO KNEE BRACE (AGAINST THE COACHES WISHES). By spring ball, he was limited to some contact and he did sport one of those smaller cloth knee braces...HE NEVER WORE ONE OF THOSE BULKY BRACES THAT LOOK LIKE A MECHANICAL/ROBOTIC KNEE.

For a guy that played in th game as much as VS did, I would have to assume that it wasn't too bad of a tear and/or that his body will be able to handle it. A large part of recovery is having strong quad muscles. Being that he is 5'6" 168 pounds, I will assume the his genetic make-up will aid in his recovery time.

Now, I like Mike Shaw. But I just took a look at his stats from last year, and in our tough games (Big Ten plus ND, I even included Indiana) Michael Shaw ran for 25 yards on 17 carries and zero touchdowns. That's not even a yard and a half per carry. He added 2 catches for 5 yards.

He's really going to have to step it up if he wants PT this fall. With his shaky production and VSmith's injury, I bet every tailback on the team gets a shot. I really hope one of them makes it happen.